• Location: LaPorte, IN
  • Joined: January 4, 2009

Topic: The Raven

I've been lurking around here for a few weeks, so I finally decided to do something. 
This isn't technically a release, since I've had this completed and posted on Youtube for about two months, but I don't know what else it would be considered in this thread.  Or feed.  Or topic.  Or whatever this thing is called.  (I'm new to this stuff.)
I guess it could be considered a release to this site as opposed to a 'releasion' to something else. 
The main this is that I made this film (or poor excuse of one) for a project for my Honors Junior English class.  We were supposed to do something that had some relation to romanticism.  What with studying romanticism, we went over this poem (for like a week), so I thought it would be fun to make a LEGO film adaptation.  I realise that I don't have much action going on, but some stanzas of the poem don't have any physical action.  Like the guy thinking 'Hmm, where did this bird come from?' 
The switching colours can also get annoying, but I wanted to try and see if that worked. 
As what usually happens to my films, I like them when I put them to-gether, and a few hours after that I realise all of the errors in it and how I could make it better, then I hate it and wish it would die.  Which, then that doesn't make much sense as to why I'm posting it here, but that goes back to me just lurking around and not doing anything worthwhile.
Since completing this (in November) I changed my walk-cycle as well.  I realised that suddenly the leg that was behind the minifig is now in front with no travel in between the two extremes.  So I've have fixed that in later projects.  It worked well enough for this one.
I could keep mentioning things that I did poorly about it, or I could just shut up and post the link.  Besides, if I point out everything, no one would reply to this anyway.  That would also make this longer and longer and it's longer than the norm now anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3MtyMG … annel_page

Der Polizist verkauft dem Weihnachtsmann Fahrräder.

dbrauer43's Website

  • Location: Yurp
  • Joined: January 9, 2009

Re: The Raven

One: good for you, to post something here and share your work.
Two: good for you, to have a critical eye on your own work. That's the best way to improve!

As for the quality of the film, my biggest issue is the editing: there's lots of text, in a small, not-to-easy-too-read font, taking up lots of time of the film, yet being gone before I got to the end. That made it hard to finish the film, as the animations are short and do not really tell the poem themselves. I would consider animating only an excerpt (after studying it for like a week, you should be able to take the important bits and summarize the rest, right?), and/or use a voiceover. As for trying out the colors: if you feel they are annoying instead of adding to the film: take 'em out (you DID add them as effects in postproduction instead of shooting them that way, didn't you?). Anyway, I liked the feect in the first scene, very befitting Edgar Allen Poe.

Lastly, I urge you to not be put off by scenes that seem not to have any animation in them. Look to similar scenes with live actors and try to find out what they do to convey what's going on, or try to highlight the fact that the main subject is motionless by animating little things in the background as a contrast.

Keep your work coming, there are always people here willing to review!

-PG

Version 1 of the the screenplay for episode 2 of The Stunt is finishised, and I really, really] await your critique!

papaguru's Website

  • Location: London
  • Joined: December 27, 2008

Re: The Raven

not a great amount of animation for how long the film was....what fps do you film at mini/bigsmile

Project Secret
status:buying bricks and sets

pizzaboy's Website

  • Location: LaPorte, IN
  • Joined: January 4, 2009

Re: The Raven

First off thanks, both for viewing and commenting.
I did notice that with the text.  It's hard to fit all of it one section and make it big enough to read.  When I presented it in class, it was projected onto a screen about a yard across. 
The time to read it is short because I had to fit it all to the song that I chose.  It was the only 'romanticism-sounding' song that I could find, so it's the only thing I had to work with. 
I don't know exactly what FPS it was.  I don't understand how to figure it out.  I made it on Windows Movie Maker where each frame lasted .20 of a second, so I'm thinking 5.  However that seems low.  So I'm not sure.  It's lower than I usually have it because I had to make it long enough to last the duration of the song.  I don't think I'm going to try that again.
I think I would make the animation segments longer if I redid this.  My teacher also said that they were too short.  I have one where the guy turns around which is short and not very interesting. 
Thanks for the criticism!:)

Der Polizist verkauft dem Weihnachtsmann Fahrräder.

dbrauer43's Website